Sex Sells and Facebook Knows It

I was somewhat startled when I went to Facebook to catch up with news and encountered a provocative photograph in the sidebar.

Facebook taunted me that the post they were displaying received 95% more “engagement” than the my own recent pitiful posts. They suggested that the remedy to my isolation was to Boost Post — to pay them to display my posts in more places more frequently.

Well, okay. Maybe paying Facebook to display my posts as “sponsored” in the newsfeeds of people I don’t know would get some new people to read the Ozdachs page, like it, and buy our services. Maybe.

But, what I really took away from Facebook’s recommendations was a reminder that sex sells. The post that received 95% more attention was a crotch shot posted by a bar whose business page I had set up. The client is now publishing his own posts, and I confess that I admire his talent for grabbing eye balls and getting people to LIKE the photo or click through for more information on the featured event. He used a classic marketing technique: he used sex to get attention for his business.

I suggest to clients that we illustrate their pages/posts/hard-copy material with photographs of babies, puppies, and pretty young women. Research shows that images of those subjects gets readers to pause and pay attention to the material. It turns out that pictures of kittens and well-endowed young men are equally effective.

My own preference is to get users to stop and click by using pictures of adorable dogs. They can be used in any forum, and puppies don’t risk offending the sensibilities of more traditional or conservative viewers. Maybe the impulse to pet a dachshund isn’t as strong as the sex drive, but in my opinion a puppy is a more appropriate graphic for a business-to-business focus.

Of course, if you are attracting customers to your bar, you might focus more on sexy photographs. Or, if you’re selling estate planning, you would be smart to load up your site with smiling babies of the inheriting generation.

In business, your task is to create an appealing image that will stand out from the crowd of messages hitting your prospective client. Pretty women, babies, and puppies stop people from paging down or tossing your flier away without a second glace. Give your message a chance to reach a customer.